Estelle Getty who is best known for playing a wise-cracking mother in The Golden Girls has sadly died on Tuesday aged 84. Getty has been in showbiz for over four decades, but it was her role as Bea Arthur’s sassy, 80-year-old mother that people loved her most for.
Getty died at 5:35 this morning, where she was surrounded by her family in her home in Hollywood Hills. According to longtime manager, Alan Siegel, Estelle Getty passed away peacefully in her sleep of natural causes.
Siegel said “Her family and close friends thank everyone for being so loving and supportive of Estelle in her last few years.”
Estelle Getty was born Estelle Scher in New York City in 1923, she dreamed of being an entertainer from a young age, she faced many knockdowns, from her size as well as objections from her Polish immigrant parents.
Getty’s first break was as a comic at resorts in New York State’s Catskill Mountains, she later pursued her dream as an actress in a number of in regional theater and off-Broadway productions. Getty managed to pull this off while she was raising her two sons and working in an office to try and bring the money in to the household.
She later won a role in a production of “Torch Song Trilogy” it was this that got the attention of Hollywood. Not long after she was cast as the oldest of four females in a sitcom called The Golden Girls.
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We offer our deepest sympathy to Estelle Getty’s family and friends.
